Microsoft and Sony aren't exactly known for working well together in the console market. One of the consequences for this is that neither PlayStation 4 nor Xbox One allows cross-platform play with the other. Back in August, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg reiterated that they were in talks with Sony regarding the feature, but had nothing more to announce at that time. Some players probably thought the two companies finally had come to an agreement last weekend.
Several Fortnite players on PlayStation 4 noticed that they played against people that had spaces in their names, which isn't allowed in PSN names. This lead to several people testing the theory by teaming up on different platforms. Some thought these incidents were faked in some way, but now we have some real evidence. We decided to contact the developers at Epic Games when we heard about this and got this response:
"It's true that we had a few technical difficulties on Saturday which made it possible to play against or with people on other consoles, but the issue has been resolved now. This was a mistake and is not something we plan to repeat or implement in the future."
An Xbox gamer decided to ask the Xbox boss Phil Spencer on Twitter what he thinks about it, and the message was pretty clear: "I would have liked to see them leave it on." Whether or not that would actually be in breach of Xbox publishing terms is, of course, another matter.
So there you have it. PlayStation 4 and Xbox One players actually got to enjoy cross-platform play for a short amount of time, but it was just an error. This has now been fixed, which means that it's no longer possible for PS4 owners to play against Xbox One owners and vice versa. At least it shows that Psyonix statement about it being very easy to implement cross-platform play is most definitely true. Even a small error can do it.
Do you understand why Sony and Microsoft can't come to an agreement, or is this just ridiculous?